It was late last night when I posted The Best Places Where Students Can Write For An “Authentic Audience”, and I forgot to add one more criteria I used to determine web tools for the list and two sites that I had meant to include.  I’ve made the following changes to the original post:

CRITERIA I’VE ADDED:

There seems to be some kind of enforced standards for all the content that’s posted on the site.  In other words,  when students explore it to see models of what others have written, it’s unlikely they will encounter something that is inappropriate for classroom use.

SITES I’VE ADDED:

Students can pick a painting, or create their own artwork, and then write a story about it at  The Art of Storytelling.  It’s a site from the Delaware Art Museum that allows you to not only do either one of those activities, but you can also  record your story with your computer microphone.  Plus, you can read and listen to stories written and spoken by others.  It’s extraordinarily simple, and extraordinarily accessible to any level of English Language Learner.  No registration is required.

Myths and Legends is a United Kingdom site where students can create slideshows about……myths and legends. It’s pretty neat and easy, and has the added great benefit of letting students record the narration for their story. Teachers have to register, and they’re very open to schools participating from around the world.  All the stories that have been created are available for viewing.  This application seems to require more writing, and the posted content seems to be more controlled, then a number of other multimedia sites I considered for inclusion in this list.